The world's first natural nickel oxalate has been described.
The results of the work have been published in the European Journal of Mineralogy. Andreibulakhite (Ni(C2O4)∙2H2O) was discovered in 2021 by associate professor Oleg Vereshchagin from St. Petersburg State University (Department of Mineralogy) while preparing for a field practice on the Kola Peninsula. The natural nickel oxalate was found in the Nyd-II quarry, near the town of Monchegorsk. It was officially approved by the International Association in 2023.
“An interesting feature of the discovery is its chemical composition. To date, very few biogenic nickel minerals are known, and this find is the first oxalate. Another interesting detail is that a synthetic analogue of andreibulakhite had been obtained in the laboratory long ago, but no one could find it in nature,” noted Oleg Vereshchagin.
For such nickel oxalate to form in nature, several rare conditions must be met simultaneously: an abundance of oxalic acid (oxalates are salts of oxalic acid) and nickel in the mineral-forming system. To ensure a high concentration of acids, specific producers are needed—such as certain fungi or lichens. Moreover, lichens are slow-growing organisms, not to mention that the concentration of nickel in nature, necessary for forming their own rocks, is also a rather rare phenomenon.
“In the nickel deposit, it is necessary to find the part where nickel-rich ores reach the 'daylight' surface and can be colonized by lichens. After that, a considerable amount of time must pass for the lichen to begin growing on this substrate and dissolve the underlying nickel-containing minerals. Most importantly, the deposit should not be exploited; otherwise, the nickel ores (along with the lichen) will be sent for smelting,” emphasized the associate professor from St. Petersburg State University.
The study of oxalates at the university is conducted under the guidance of Professor Olga Frank-Kamenetskaya from St. Petersburg State University (Department of Crystallography) with the participation of two groups—geologists and biologists. The biologists, who primarily study fungi (and lichens), are led by Professor Dmitry Vlasov from St. Petersburg State University (Department of Botany). The group of geologists studying the components includes mineralogists and crystallographers. Physicists also actively participated in the work on the description of andreibulakhite, without whom it would have been impossible to study the spectroscopic properties of the sample.
The researchers conducted their study at the base of the Scientific Park of St. Petersburg State University (Resource centers "X-ray diffraction methods of research", "Optical and laser methods of substance research", "Geomodel", and "Center for Microscopy and Microanalysis").
As Oleg Vereshchagin clarified, the task of searching for natural oxalates was set by Olga Frank-Kamenetskaya during work on a project supported by a Russian Science Foundation grant (19-17-00141). Andreibulakhite was found and described in the last year of the grant's execution. In recent years, St. Petersburg State University has been one of the main recipients of grants from the Russian Science Foundation. In 2022 and 2023, St. Petersburg State University was the leader in the total number of RSF grants: in 2022, researchers from St. Petersburg State University received 112 grants—5.5 percent of the total number of winning projects and the highest number of grants for a single organization. In 2023, the university maintained its leadership in this RSF competition: researchers from St. Petersburg State University received 70 grants, which is five percent of the total number of winning projects.
The new nickel oxalate was named in honor of Andrei Glebovich Bulakh, who worked at St. Petersburg State University from 1962 to 2017 and dedicated many years to studying the geology of the Kola Peninsula. Bulakh long headed the work of the commission on new geological materials of the Russian Mineralogical Society and was a representative of Russia in the International Commission on New Minerals (1994-2009). Additionally, Andrei Glebovich is the author of textbooks for higher education in both Russian and English.
“Andrei Glebovich Bulakh is one of my teachers and a person who inspired me to pursue science by his example. He was a wonderful storyteller and dedicated himself to solving a wide range of mineralogical problems (one of his scientific credos was to periodically change research directions). Andrei Glebovich Bulakh and Olga Viktorovna Frank-Kamenetskaya worked together in scientific research for many years and were very close friends. In particular, they were involved in the examination of the stone of the famous Egyptian sphinxes at the St. Petersburg (Imperial) Academy of Arts,” concluded Oleg Vereshchagin.
Andrei Bulakh was a leading expert on natural stone in the architecture of St. Petersburg. This topic is the subject of a series of his books titled “Stone in the Decoration of St. Petersburg.” Later, Andrei Glebovich created a special course for St. Petersburg State University students titled “Stone in History and Culture.”
He has authored over 200 monographs, articles, and theses dedicated to the topic of stone in architecture. Andrei Bulakh studied deposits of decorative stone and the condition of stone in architectural monuments. He collaborated extensively with restorers and always insisted on using historical materials for restoration work on architectural monuments in St. Petersburg. He strived to ensure that the stone decoration of the city retained the appearance intended by the architects of the Northern capital.